HKD 384
384/1
·RESSIVED A DE
- 6SEP 1991
DESK OFFICE
Foreign & Commonwealth
Office
2 September 1991
INDEX
Miss J Wheldon
Legal Secretariat to the Law Officers Attorney General's Chambers
9 Buckingham Gate
LONDON SW1E 6JP
London SWIA 2AH
Telephone: 071-
270 3067
Enter
JH9
Dear Juliet,
LORRAIN OSMAN
FOUR TELEGRAMS
1. We spoke about this matter on the telephone on Friday. I enclose a draft letter to Clifford Chance and a set of the previous correspondence. As you know, the problem is that four telegrams were recently discovered in the Chambers of the Attorney General of Hong Kong which, had they been found at the relevant time, would have been listed in the schedule to a Public Interest Immunity certificate prepared by the Hong Kong Government in the course of Osman's fourth application for habeas corpus. The four telegrams were amongst a number of documents considered by the FCO and Treasury solicitors at the time of Osman's fourth habeas corpus but they were considered irrelevant and not listed in the schedule to the FCO certificate. Osman's application for discovery in his fourth habeas corpus was dismissed on grounds of relevance, the documents sought would in any event been covered by a claim for public interest immunity. The presence or absence of these four telegrams in the schedule to either the Hong Kong or the FCO certificate would therefore have had no effect on the proceedings.
2. We have consulted John Laws who advised that we had taken a bona fide view that these documents were not discoverable. There was not the slightest reason to second guess that view now, and that any disclosure of the existence of these documents would be an action taken under cover of no perceptible legal duty whatever.
3. Nevertheless the Attorney General of Hong Kong still takes the view that the existence of these documents should be disclosed. I understand that the reason he takes this view is that he considers that he ought to "set the record straight" and not to allow his office to be the subject of
LEGAEW
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